We just finished the Bodhisattva Ceremony, the Renewal of Vows Ceremony, Renewal of Intention. I think this is probably the most important ceremony that we have. We don't have so many ceremonies, actually, very few. But this one I think is the most important for us. It gives us a chance to acknowledge our karma and then to renew our intention. So once a month we acknowledge our karma and we renew our intention. So what are our intentions?

[01:08]

And how do we fulfill them? This ceremony is called sometimes Renewal of Vows, sometimes we call it Bodhisattva Ceremony. It's also Repentance Ceremony. I think a lot of people don't like that. I don't like to repent. It sounds too Catholic. But actually, repentance is one of the cornerstones of Buddhist practice. And I think that we have to remember that. And the purpose of practicing Buddhism is to free ourselves from karma. So a ceremony that helps us to acknowledge that is a very important ceremony.

[02:14]

We don't have a personal, we don't bring up our personal problems or faults or transgressions because this is a short ceremony. It's an abbreviated ceremony. Riyaku phasat means abbreviated repentance ceremony. where we acknowledge our karma in a general way, not in a specific way, like I did this and I did that. There's also some need to do that. But in this short ceremony, we acknowledge our shortcomings And then we renew our practice. We don't dwell over our shortcomings. I think that's an advantage. We don't get caught up in dwelling over our shortcomings or our transgressions.

[03:23]

But we just acknowledge in a general way that we have such things. All my ancient karma I now fully acknowledge or avow and pay homage to all the Buddhas and ancestors. And this is also a typically Buddhist way of practicing, is to pay homage to all the Buddhas and ancestors and give up our make offerings, make offerings to all the Buddhas and ancestors. So this kind of offering, you know, where we chant their names and acknowledge them and bow. So, and what we are renewing is Bodhisattva way, not

[04:38]

on Joe's way or Jill's way, but Bodhisattva path, our Bodhisattva path. So I want to ask you, what is Bodhisattva's path? Who can say? I would say that it's the recognition of your identity with all beings and the resolve to act upon that recognition. That's good. Diane? Opening your heart. To what? To God. Eugene? I think of it as putting, or attempting to put yourself second and be concerned with other people, and the Bowling Soccer is wholeheartedly concerned with that.

[06:00]

Okay. Anybody else? Raise your foot. Wendy? Just generally taking care of other beings is more than likely taking care of oneself. It's like the golden rule. Old. Old gold. Well, those are very nice answers. I think there's a lot that you can say, but the Heart Sutra is the sutra of the Bodhisattva's path.

[07:03]

Every day we chant the Heart Sutra. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva How does he practice Prajnaparamita? He sees that all skandhas are empty and all of the realms of sense and consciousness and all of the most cherished doctrines of Buddhism are all empty of their own being and he depends on nothing but Prajnaparamita or she depends on nothing but Prajnaparamita. But how does this Bodhisattva practice and what does he do?

[08:09]

What does the Bodhisattva do? At the end there's the mantra gāte gāte pāra gāte pārasamgate bodhi svaha gata is usually not translated even though the sutra itself is a Chinese transliteration into Japanese of the Sanskrit original The mantra is still in the Sanskrit, gathe gathe, bhagate, and mantras are not usually translated. The feeling is there's some very deep intention in the sutra that goes beyond our intellect, rational thinking mind.

[09:17]

And the mantra, when we chant the mantra, the intention of the mantra is to connect us with that, to help us make the leap between the intellectual understanding and true understanding. The mantra itself, can't do that for you. Only your practice can do that. But the mantra is a focal point that gives, allows you to make that leap. So what is a mantra? Mantra, in the usual sense, mantra is not peculiar to Buddhism, but most Indian religions have mantras.

[10:20]

And there are mantras that are not particularly Indian. But we associate mantras with Indian religions, something that you say over and over again. So maybe a mantra is a phrase that you say over and over again to focus your mind beyond the words, and to create a focused, one-pointed determination. I remember when watching Suzuki Roshi in his daily life, And it occurred to me that Suzuki Roshi's life, his way of life, was a mantra. He never asked us to chant, to use this mantra as a mantra, to chant over and over again in some way, in our mind, as a kind of gatha.

[11:35]

But his life was an example of a living mantra. That was a big revelation to me about the meaning of a mantra, not just something that you chant, but Bodhisattva's life itself, as it's lived, is the mantra. I remember watching him come out of his office and go into the zendo. And I've talked about this before. Every day, he would come out, every morning, he would come out and sit zazen and do service three times a day, at least twice a day, over every day.

[12:44]

repeating the same, what seemed like the same activity, over and over. And I thought to myself, how can somebody repeat the same stuff, the same activity, over and over? And he seems to be very satisfied. He doesn't seem to be craving anything or needing anything. I picked up that somehow he had resolved something in himself, that He was perfectly satisfied to do what he was doing. And that there was nothing that he had left to accomplish in a worldly way. He didn't need to go to movies, although he went to movies. He didn't need material things. He had a television set in his office. Sometimes he and his friend would watch television after zazen, watch the news.

[13:47]

But he didn't have a car. He didn't... He had a wife. And she had a husband. And they argued a lot. But there was something about his life that was very limited, his activity was very limited and his needs were very limited and his desire was very limited and although he did the same kinds of activities day after day you never felt that he was bored with it or that he didn't have room in his life for anything that came up. As a matter of fact, his life was very open. He had lots of room because he didn't have a lot of expectation in his mind. His mind was filled with worrying about his students, but he wasn't worried so much about himself.

[15:00]

He wasn't so much worried about himself. He wasn't worried about being famous. People wanted him sometimes to go on TV. You know, maybe you should go on TV, everyone says, and give a talk and say, oh, I don't want to be a movie star. And where a lot of other teachers used to travel around, It was characteristic in the 60s for teachers from Japan to travel around in America. They would call them jet set roshis and give sashins. And there were people in those days who used to go around from one sashin to another.

[16:04]

They didn't have much daily practice, but they would find out where the sashins were and they'd go to the sashins. And I can't criticize that practice, but Suzuki Roshi felt that there was something about doing that which had some little greediness to it, a kind of spiritual greediness. His feeling about practice was day after day, daily practice in a forever, just daily practice forever rather than some very intensive way now and then to get a hit or to

[17:10]

gained some special state of mind. And he didn't go places. He went to Yosemite and somebody took him to the east coast and so forth, but he stayed right there at the Zindo. And he didn't go off here and there, except in the beginning. He didn't go off here and there to educate people or to hold sashins. Once in a while he did. He would go, but not very often. And he just stayed in one place. And people came to him. Although he wasn't trying to build up a big sangha. Actually, he was rather apprehensive that the sangha was growing so big. And I think that made him a little bit apprehensive because at the time, in the 60s and early 70s, there was a Zen boom, what we called the Zen boom, where there were lots of people who were being attracted to Zen.

[18:37]

And people who were largely dissatisfied with the stated things in the country and we're really looking for some alternative religious practice, or whatever it is that we're looking for. And he said, over and over again, we don't want to have a Zen boom. Sincere practice, you know, daily sincere practice, without making too much progress. If you make a little bit of progress, that's wonderful. To make a little bit of progress, little by little, is really wonderful. And there was a time during the 60s and 70s

[19:44]

when he was alive, especially, when the practice at Zen Center was very sincere and attracted the attention of many people because of its sincerity. So, Suzuki Roshi's mantra, the mantra of was his life. Everything that he did was included within his mantra. Or his mantra, the shape of his life was the shape of his mantra. And everything within his life was right there within this mantra. So you can see, kind of see the shape of it. Teaching, speaking, just walking.

[20:46]

I think what really impressed people was just his manner. Very simple, unusual manner, which was nothing special. It wasn't a special... not a special kind of manner, just very natural, actually. Sort of quiet. But... hard to put your finger on what it was was so attractive, honest, simple, no covering up of anything.

[22:01]

And when he had a problem, the problem was there. It's not that he didn't have problems. He always had problems. As a matter of fact, problems were his practice. He didn't say, oh, I have this terrible problem, I want to get rid of it. He said, I have this problem, and this problem is my practice. Isn't that wonderful? So everything became included within his mantra, all of his problems, and all of our problems. And so why it was easy to trust him was because you could see that he had problems, that he wasn't... he was perfect, but perfect in that if you can accept

[23:14]

all of your problems as your perfection. So you can say, well, he wasn't perfect, by any means. And he had lots of problems, and we can see all of his problems. But all that was quite perfect, just as he was. And you really had the feeling that he relied strictly on prajnaparamita. He didn't rely on fame, or money, or wealth of any kind, or entertainment, or interesting things. just relied on prajnaparamita, doing his practice.

[24:21]

And, you know, he'd say, don't look around. Just do your practice. Don't look around. Don't get caught by what's around you. When you become very strong and very confident, then you can look around you more. And in many ways he was not so strong. In many ways he was kind of weak, but that was okay, you know, because his weakness was part of his life, or part of his mantra. Mostly we try to hide our weaknesses and show our strengths, you know?

[25:29]

But for him it was all equal. Strength. This is my strength. This is my weakness. All equal. I was talking to somebody the other day. And it was a woman who said that she was doing social work. And she was talking about wanting to know how not to get caught by her sympathies in social work and to help people, but to also not get drowned in her own feelings when working with people. And then she was saying that she had gone to many different kinds of groups which teach you how to be very much alive.

[26:33]

Help you to be alive. Help you to be happy in your life. And she wanted to know if that was a good thing. I think she's a little apprehensive because when you make an effort to create a happiness, a certain kind of strong happiness in your life, it's very easy to do it in a certain way. And then, as inevitably in life, something unhappy or something tragic will undercut your happiness. And I didn't say anything directly to her. I just kind of talked around it a little bit. And then she came out with saying, I see.

[27:37]

It's OK to have that kind of wonderful outgoing happiness. as long as you're also willing to accept the other side equally." I said, yes, that's right. As long as you can accept the other side just as easily, equally, then you can go to it. But be careful. So Suzuki Roshi's life was like not too much happiness, not too much unhappiness. Middle way. To just pursue the way. And when happiness comes, be happy. When unhappiness comes, be unhappy. Just be unhappy. So that whatever comes, your mind is open.

[28:39]

The main thing is your mind is open. So this attitude is an attitude of renunciation or non-attainment. What we call non-attainment. The attainment of non-attainment. We think of attainment as to get something. But the attainment of non-attainment is to attain nothing, which is the ultimate attainment, where there's nothing, no thing in your mind, and you are ready to accept everything. This is a bodhisattva's practice.

[29:43]

I don't want to say it's nirvana. But, as they say, nirvana. Just open, with no special thing in your mind. Like the wind bell. Rijing's wind bell, all day long, it blows around in the wind. The wind comes from the east, west, south, north. But the wind bell just has a big mouth and all day long goes ding, dong, ding, ding, dong, ding. Whichever way the wind comes. And Suzuki Roshi, I think, tried very hard to practice that way, to give his life to that way of living.

[31:00]

And one thing that was... that gave his students a lot of confidence was that he was very convinced of that way of life and wasn't looking for some other way of life or for some advantage in life. When happiness comes, just be happy, completely happy. When sadness comes, just be completely sad. Next moment, something else. without desiring something or rejecting it. It's very hard for us, you know, to live that way. It's very simple. It's just the simplest kind of life there is.

[32:05]

But it's hard for us to have such a simple life, a simple way. But I can't say that he was always contented, on the surface, but underneath, or in the average, his life was very satisfying, very steady, and very satisfying. Whatever we do in our life, we can't have it both ways, so to speak. If we... whatever we take up, we ignore. Whatever we take up here, we ignore over here. That's inevitable. We take something up over here, we ignore something over here. And most of the people that I talk to have a problem with taking it up over here and ignoring it over here.

[33:17]

because we all want to have it all. So we have to make some choices in our life. And when we look at the kind of choices that Suzuki Hiroshi made, I would never have made that kind of choice before I met him. I always felt that I needed, I wanted something to fulfill my life. Something exciting and interesting to fill my life. It never would have occurred to me that there was the way that he had Bodhisattva way. But by the time I got to Suzuki Roshi, I was ready for for that, even though I didn't know exactly what I was getting into or was ready for. And when I discovered his way, right away I liked it, you know, I caught on to it.

[34:30]

But at the same time I had a lot of difficulties with it because of my karma. My karma was very strong in the realm of desire. And so that's something that I always had to deal with and always will have to deal with. But I feel very fortunate to have been his student and to have learned what he had to teach.

[35:36]

So this mantra of daily affairs, mantra of daily life, is actually our practice. When we enter into practice and really practice becomes the center of our life, when you realize that practice is the center of your life, then your life becomes a mantra in the same way. And all of our, everything we do is part of that mantra, part of that chant, part of that one thread running through everything. So, one other thing about Suzuki Roshi's practice is that it was not glamorous.

[37:42]

And he always underplayed the glamorous or interesting part of it. And he would always talk about nothing special. Practice is nothing special. and the idea of no attainment. But all the time, you know, he was talking about enlightenment without telling you about it. or this is enlightenment, or strive hard for enlightenment.

[38:47]

The thing about our practice, this practice, which is different than a lot of other practices, is that right away you enter into the midst of realization. Right away. the first time you come to the Zen Dojo. But you can practice for years and years and not understand it. It's not that you have understanding, but you have IT. So Sato Zen students, you know, kind of bumble around a lot, you know. Somebody asks them a question and they don't know how to answer it particularly. Or if your mother says, why do you sit zazen? I don't know. After 10 years you've been practicing and somebody says, well, why do you sit zazen?

[39:52]

Why do you do that? I can't tell you, you know. you feel very funny, you know, and God, that's right, after 10 years I've been doing this and I can't tell, I can't explain it, you know. That's because you're in it. The other way is that you study all about it, you learn about Buddhism and you have some kind of language. with which to talk about it. And gradually you know all about it before you enter it. And maybe you never enter it because you know all about it. So that's why we say our practice starts from realization, or it starts from enlightenment.

[40:56]

and enters into practice. That's really the foundation of this particular lineage, the way we practice. You don't have to know anything. It's not a matter of knowing anything. You just enter and practice. And you feel good. You feel something, you know. When you sit Zazen, something happens, but you can't explain it, or you don't know why or what. So it's good to, at some point, study a little bit. What we study, it verifies your practice. We don't study in order to get knowledge, in order to practice. First, we practice. Then, you get curious about it. What's it about? How do you explain it?

[41:59]

How do you think about it? Then you start to study. And the study, you say, oh yeah, I see that, I understand that, through my practice. So study is a kind of wonderful thing after practice. After you've been practicing for a while, study, it's just wonderful. Gosh, I see what I understand now. Something intellectual. It's good. But if we just have intellectual understanding, that's not it. So we can chant the Heart Sutra over and over for five years before we And we can get it intuitively. The old Heart Sutra that we used to chant at Sokoji had the Chinese characters, the Japanese transliteration, which is what we chanted, and it had an English, literal English translation underneath.

[43:12]

And as you were chanting, you know, you chanted in Japanese, but then your eye would catch the English underneath, the characters. that really penetrated. But then later, after five or ten years, I had to start to study something about the sutra. What is the sutra saying that I don't understand? I understand it intuitively, but what is it saying that I don't understand, that I don't know about? And you read it and you say, gee, that's wonderful. I didn't know that. But you can understand it. So when our practice is this mantra, there's no coming or going in and out of practice.

[44:27]

No coming in and going out. Everything you do is an opportunity to practice. Everything you do is an opportunity to practice non-attainment, or giving up your ego, giving up self-centeredness. All of your answers were quite good. in that way is how we practice our mantra, filling mantra. We don't have much time left, so if you have one question Fatiha.

[45:38]

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